His trip east from Los Angeles had a tough start when Superstorm Sandy forced him to cancel Monday's show, but picked up Tuesday when shock jock Howard Stern challenged him to ask embarassing questions of Letterman.

Nothing doing. The Kimmel/Letterman summit was the lovefest you would have expected, with Kimmel showing off old pictures of himself posing with a Letterman-themed birthday cake and Letterman-themes license plates.

"What you're getting with no audience is probably the reaction people are having at home - which is complete silence," Letterman joked, talking about hosting his first two shows of the week with no audience. Later, he quipped "I don't think people like me."

Kimmel tried his best to disprove that Wednesday, pouring on the fanboy love with questions about whether he hangs out with guy friends or cooks. (answer: no and not anymore.)

It was another sign that Kimmel has been invited up from the kid's table in late night, hosting the Emmys, shepherding the White House Correspondents' Dinner and preparing to see his show flip timeslots with Nightline in January.

"Just spend a month with me," Kimmel joked midway through their interview.

"Feels like I'm going to do that tonight," Letterman shot back.

Can't beat the master. Here's a sample of the interview and Kimmel's best bit, and an interview with guys in a black barbershop in Brooklyn about Mitt Romney.